History

In1826, Antoine Jerome Balard discovered a new element which was soon to be named Bromine, after the Greek word bromos, meaning “stench”. Bromine had an awful stench and very toxic vapors. Antoine discovered Bromine by adding chlorinated water to water from a salt marsh and found traces of Bromine by isolating it when he mixed together the two water types. Later on, other scientists discovered Bromine compounds in deep brine wells in areas around Arkansas and isolated Bromine from the compounds.  Most of the Bromine discovered was found in compounds and never was found uncombined in nature because Bromine is so reactive. The most common element in which Bromine was found in a compound with was Sodium Bromide. Other compounds were also found such as Aluminum Bromide, Potassium Bromide and Silver Bromide.

Properties and Characterstics

Bromine is one of the two liquid elements at room temperature, the other being Mercury (80). Bromine is a reddish color when a liquid at room te mperature and is extremely dangerous to the human body when uncombined. It has vapors that can damage the nasal tissue or throat tissue. If too much of the vapor is inhaled, the vapor can become so toxic that the body will be extremely damaged and even cause death. When Bromine bonds with other elements, which it does quite easily due to having seven valence electrons, it will gain or share electrons and become a stable atom at eight valence electrons. When stable and combined with other elements, Bromine is less harmful to the human body.

Compounds

Bromine is always found in nature in a compound with another element because its reactivity. These compounds included Aluminum Bromide, Sodium Bromide, Potassium Bromide, and Silver Bromide. Sodium Bromide is probably the most common and is used to purify water and used in developing old-fashioned pictures, for example. In the older days, Sodium Bromide was used as a sedative, but is very rarely today. Silver Bromide is used in photographic film which creates the picture on the film which is then developed by the Sodium Bromide. Aluminum Bromide is used in colorful dyes which are used to make things colorful (Tie-dye shirts!). Potassium Bromide is used in certain pills that are a supplementary in meals for dogs. One of these brands is called Epilease.

Uses

Bromine is used in many things that many people would not think it could be found. It is used in televisions and computers for instance to prevent the television or computer from catching fire. Bromine has properties that counteract flammability of objects. For example it is found in a compound that is used to put out wild fires. Usually, the Bromine compound either prevents the fire from spreading or takes out the fire. Bromine is also used in tablets for spas which help to purify the water and has a similar affect that chlorine has in pools. It is not only used in tablets for spas, but is used in general to purify water in general. Bromine is used to develop old-fashioned photographs, black and white, and in film canisters for film cameras today. This is probably the most common use of Bromine. Other uses for Bromine are in pesticides because of its poison content and in some medicines as well to kill bacteria. Bromine is also found in colorful dyes, combined with Aluminum. There are quite a few other uses of Bromine, but it is only found in things when combined with another element.

Isotopes

Bromine, as well as many of the elements on the periodic table, has isotopes. Bromine has twenty known isotopes, two which are the most commonly found; BR-79 and BR-81. The other isotopes of Bromine are all radioactive and are not as common and they range from BR-69 to BR-89. Although the common isotopes of Bromine are not radioactive, they are still extremely dangerous, but the radioactive ones are even more so.

Other Halogens

Bromine is one of the five elements in the halogen family, Group #17.  The other four are Fluorine (9),Chlorine (17), Iodine (53) and Astatine (85). If learn more about these elements, click on one and find out!. The word Halogen means “salt-forming” and all of them, except Astatine, are nonmetals. When each of these elements in the Halogen family reacts with other elements, they usually gain or share electrons. All of them have seven valence electrons, allowing them to react or bond easily with other elements and also identifying that they are all very reactive elements. Since the Halogens are very reactive, they are extremely dangerous to the human body when they are not combined with other elements. When they are combined, they come in real handy and are used in many different things. Bromine, for example, combines with silver to create Silver Bromide which is used in photographic film. Another example is that Chlorine is used with Calcium to create Calcium Chloride which is then used to melt ice on the streets and walkways. Fluorine is used in toothpaste and helps make your teeth cleaner and Iodine is mainly used in medications that can be found everywhere.

Fluorine

Chlorine